Dear Readers,
For some reason, I've just not been feeling up to daily blog entries lately. I'm hoping I'll be back to daily entries again soon, but for now, I'm probably going to be posting about twice a week, or at most three times. For the last few weeks, I've been really concentrating on my job (and on running errands, doing laundry, and family stuff) and it just has left me not only with no time to blog, but with little time to think about what I'd blog about were I doing it. However, one thing I have been thinking about is a set of excellent podcasts I've been listening to while doing errands and riding around on the subway.
First off, Marc Maron's new Air America show is finally on the air in Los Angeles. If you have insomnia, you can listen to it streaming at "Progressive Talk" KTLK. It's good, and since he's not as pressured to "talk about the issues" as he was during the all-important morning hour, I think the whole thing is more relaxed and fun. I paid those Air America bastards $50 just so I could listen to it on my morning subway commute, and I actually think it's worth it.
Now, after reading the "Marc Maron show blog," I've learned that Air America also took marvelous Mike Malloy off the air in NYC and replaced him with the dreadful "Sattelite Sisters." Now that's an appropriate reward for the man who won the NY A.I.R award for the "best talk show" last year. hmm, I do hate to pay Air America so that I can listen to my favorite cancelled shows. Isn't there something just terribly wrong with that? First, you cancel our favorite shows, then you ask us to pay you for the privileged of listening to them? why, it's extortion!
This morning on the subway, I saw someone reading THIS article about Air America losing its NY affiliate in the NY Post. (to see CEO Goldberg's response, check this more trustworthy source. Whatever happens, I hope Maron stays on the radio because the man is a comic genius, and no matter how much people may like Dr. Maddow on "Air America Mornings," she has become a Democratic Party talking point machine. Let's face it, even NPR has more information that you might need in the day, and while "Wake Up Call" is sometimes a bit dreary and soporific, WBAI's Deepah Fernandez has WAY more to say and plays MUCH better music. After listening to Marc M's show, I've decided that even though my major complaint about him was that he didn't "talk about the issues" enough and spent too much time talking about his insecurities, his insecurities are more interesting than Rachel Maddow's "front page." Let me explain, somehow, he'll link some greater philosophical, psychological /or political observation to his meditations on his own experience, and this will be deeper than the usual "ohmigod here's what it said in the paper today!" that you get from Maddow.
Other podcast or streaming recs. If you google "chomsky podcast," you will eventually land at the show that I didn't know about that has existed for the last six years in Chicago and the world wide web. That's Chuck Mertz and "This is Hell," four solid hours of interviews with your favorite journalists and activists, right and left (Scott Ritter, George Galloway, Dilip Hiro, Cindy Sheehan etc. etc) along with some politico-comic bits such as "Conspiracy Corner," which is essential commentary on today's activist culture.
Finally, if you haven't yet, listen to Ricky Gervais' podcast. It is short and simply hilarious and makes doing household chores much more pleasant.
That's all for now. More tomorrow, if I get the chores done in time.
5 comments:
Huffington Post
Pomona College Professor Gets a Visit from the U.S. Gestapo
...The two men asked to speak with Professor Tinker Salas in his office. They identified themselves as Los Angeles County Sheriffs Mike M. Abdeen and Don Lord, operating out of a West Covina office, but they did not show any badges. They explained that they were members of the "L.A. County Sheriff's Department/F.B.I. Joint Task Force on Terrorism." Professor Tinker Salas asked whether they were actual F.B.I. agents, and they said no. They explained that they had "come by to have a conversation" with Professor Tinker Salas because they were "interested in his work," and noted that there is a growing Venezuelan population in the Los Angeles area and thought he might be able to tell them more about it.
Professor Miguel Tinker Salas didn't buy that line and asked them point blank why they were really there.
At that point, they opened a folder, revealing that it was a file on Professor Tinker Salas, along with his picture. And, they said, they had some questions for him. Those questions: What is his immigration status? Is he a U.S. citizen? What is the nature of his contact with the Venezuelan embassy or consulate?
Podcast this
"one of the most offensive -- and amusing -- pieces of political theatre I have ever seen, with a picture of a fetus, then invoking the Homo AlertTM with an image of men kissing. He moves on to "aliens," showing spaceships, then cutting to a pic of Mexicans scaling fences. This ad packs every wingnut, unhinged Freeper cause into this one media piece....
Even in NC, I have to believe this crap isn't going to fly."
Teevee News:
President's Nephew Defends Port Deal
Not-Ready-For-Teevee News:
Ethnic groups rally for immigrant rights
"What started as a word-of-mouth campaign, then spread through the foreign language media, grabbed the attention of the entire city by midday, as a throng 2 miles long marched from Union Park on the Near West Side to Federal Plaza.
Police estimated the crowd as large as 100,000, making it one of the biggest pro-immigrant rallies in U.S. history....
Whole shifts of workers left their jobs to underscore the importance of immigrant workers. One server from an Italian restaurant came in his work tie and apron, draped with a U.S. flag. Construction workers, still wearing hardhats, came straight from their job sites. Clerks from the El Guero market in Aurora piled into the store's delivery van, riding on produce boxes.
Rolling Stone
"In his dream America, the one he believes both the Bible and the Constitution promise, the state will simply wither away. In its place will be a country so suffused with God and the free market that the social fabric of the last hundred years -- schools, Social Security, welfare -- will be privatized or simply done away with. There will be no abortions; sex will be confined to heterosexual marriage. Men will lead families, mothers will tend children, and big business and the church will take care of all....
He speaks often and admiringly of John Brown, the abolitionist who massacred five pro-slavery settlers just north of the farm where Brownback grew up. Brown wanted to free the slaves; Brownback wants to free fetuses. "
Hey thanks for the kind words. I do semi-formal writeups of the Konspiracy Korner pieces at my website:
http://www.nodoctors.com/konspiracy.html
Cheers,
Elvis
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